U.S. EPA Finds Petaluma, Calif., Superfund Site Clean

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announces it has deleted the Sola Optical USA, Inc. site in Petaluma, Calif., from the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).

Between 1978 and 2001, Sola Optical USA, Inc. owned and operated an optical lens manufacturing facility at the site in Petaluma, Calif. As a result of Sola Optical’s manufacturing processes, chlorinated solvents and other chemicals were released into the soil and groundwater. Sola Optical ceased its operations at the site and sold the facility buildings in 2001. The buildings have since been reused by other commercial tenants.

“The cleanup of this site is an example of how state, local, and federal environmental regulators can work together with a responsible party to address contamination and safeguard local water supplies,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “EPA is known for adding sites to the Superfund list, but our ultimate goal is to clean them up so that we can take them off the list.”

Under the oversight of EPA and California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Sola Optical completed an investigation and initial soil removal, and in 1991, EPA issued a final cleanup plan to remove the contamination from the groundwater and to prevent a nearby City of Petaluma well from being contaminated. In 2012, the groundwater was found to meet cleanup goals, and monitoring data showed the site no longer posed a current or future threat to human health and the environment.

Deleting Sola Optical from the NPL will conclude a 30-year federal and state investigation and cleanup. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board first ordered investigations in 1983, and the site was placed on the federal Superfund list in 1990.